In modern stalls for dairy cattle, different bedding materials are used, with different degrees of success. Each of the various bedding materials has its own advantages and disadvantages. As is well known in the art, sand has been found to be an acceptable bedding material, and is capable of providing superior results in terms of cow hygiene and comfort.
One disadvantage of the typical prior art stall is that, in practice, a substantial amount of sand is moved out of the stall and onto the floor of the barn, i.e., into the gutter. Such outward movement of the sand is due to the movement of the cow, as the cow exits the stall. This is generally due to a tendency to shuffle, i.e., the cow drags its hooves over the sand, as the cow backs out of the stall. In this way, each cow moves some sand out of the prior art stall and onto the floor every time it exits the prior art stall.
It has been determined that a surprisingly large amount of sand is removed from the prior art stalls in this way. It is estimated that approximately 45-50 pounds (approximately 20.4-22.7 kg.) of sand is required to be replaced in the typical prior art stall once every day.
As is well known in the art, the floor typically has manure on it. Accordingly, when sand is moved out of the stall and onto the floor as described above, the sand is mixed with the manure, to provide a sand-manure mixture.
This has serious, and costly, consequences, because of the relatively large amounts of sand that are mixed with the manure. As is well known in the art, the manure on the floor is required to be removed regularly, and then processed. Any sand that has become mixed in the manure on the floor is removed with it. Once removed, the sand-manure mixture usually is processed in accordance with typical practices, e.g., the mixture of sand and manure is ultimately spread on fields. However, because of the relatively large amounts of sand involved, the mixture of the sand in the manure typically has significant negative impacts. First, the sand adds significant weight to the material to be processed. Because of the amount of sand which may be mixed into the manure (e.g., in a large barn), the additional weight can be significant. Second, because the sand is abrasive, it causes the processing machinery to wear out more quickly. Finally, the sand lost from the stalls has to be replaced, adding significantly to operating costs.
One solution that has been proposed is to process the sand-manure mixture to remove the sand therefrom, and to clean the sand, so that the manure is free of the sand. However, this adds significant capital costs, because a special machine is needed for removing the sand and cleaning it. Also, the steps of removing and cleaning the sand adds significantly to the operational costs incurred in processing the sand-manure mixture on an ongoing basis. Additional costs are also incurred in connection with moving the cleaned sand back into the stalls.